Summary

• Casefinding is a system for locating every reportable cancer case diagnosed and/or treated in a given facility or defined geographic area.
• All cancer registries must perform case finding, including hospital-specific and central or population-based registries. Although these cancer registries may use different source documents, the procedures involved in their casefinding cycles are similar.
• In the casefinding process, a suspense file is kept so that the status of casefinding can be ascertained at any time.
• Casefinding can be performed electronically or manually, by active or passive means, or through a combination of methods.
• The criteria for eligible cases in a cancer registry depend upon the governing agencies of the registry.
• Most government agencies only require malignant (ICD-O behavior code 2 and 3) cases to be included in the cancer registry. However, hospital cancer committees or even central registries may require the registry to include benign or borderline/uncertain cases.
• The impact of missed cases can result in underreporting the overall new incidences of cancer cases.

Updated: December 12, 2023